Strickland Ready For Portman Debates

Ted Strickland said Tuesday that voters haven’t cast their ballots yet, but when they do, common sense will prevail after they learn that Senator Rob Portman, his incumbent Republican opponent, and Donald Trump are in sync with the interests of the wealthy, but not theirs, especially when it comes to rights for women, workers, students and seniors.

With about 56 days until Nov. 8, Mr. Strickland believes he’s on the right side of the issues and Portman is on the wrong side, and voters will wise up to the difference, especially if media does a better job of understanding who caused the economic woes so central to today’s debate about national direction and who handled it best.

Media appears to have adopted an alternative trajectory, that Strickland is struggling, based on polls showing him falling further behind Mr. Portman with Election Day less than two months away, and the dash for cash favors Team Portman over Team Strickland.

The former governor of Ohio fielded questions from reporters Tuesday afternoon at an new grassroots field office for the Clinton campaign in Upper Arlington, an affluent suburb of Columbus with Ohio State University nearby.

Strickland said he thinks Ohio voters will break to him once their commonsense informs them that Sen. Portman and Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, are “in this together” and that neither of them have or will represent their interests over those of the wealthiest.

Facing a losing battle to keep up with Sen. Portman’s campaign cash assistance, especially from billionaires like the Koch Brothers who have diverted their vast sums of campaign cash from the presidential race to down-ticket candidates like Portman, Mr. Strickland said Sen. Portman’s fear of being seen with Trump, even though he’s endorsed and trusts him with the nuclear codes, reveals that Portman, instead of being ashamed to campaign for Donald Trump is doing something worse, putting his political well being above what’s right for America, even though he knows Trump isn’t fit to be president.

Bring on the debates, Strickland said with a big smile. “I’m looking forward to it,” he said, expressing a desire for more than three debates with Sen. Portman. Strickland whacked those who describe Portman’s campaign so far as “flawless.” Strickland laughed at that notion, dismissing it as fantasy since billionaires like the Koch Brothers have spent large amounts on money on the senator’s behalf to saddle the former governor with causing and mishandling the Great Recession of 2007-2009, terrible years inside of the governor’s only term.

For the last six years, Republicans have saddled Strickland with causing the economic downturn that left hundreds of thousands of Ohioans jobless and not being able to stop it. A commercial touting Mr. Strickland’s record of both handling the Great Recession and putting Ohio on the road to recovery is airing now in Ohio.

Strickland, who said he left John Kasich with a recovering economy, a story Plunderbund has reported before but mainstream media seems unwilling to admit, will press his case when face to face with Rob Portman that he, not Strickland, helped tee up the great fall as budget director then chief trade representative for President George W. Bush.

The Great Recession was a national recession, he reminded reporters, caused by the policies of George Bush, whose budget director was Rob Portman. “I had nothing to do with creating it but I had a lot to do with managing the affairs of this state during the recession in a responsible way. I gave John Kasich a recovering economy and I’m proud of my tenure as governor,” he said with confidence.

Portman will have a hard time explaining how he’s represented Ohio over the last several years, Strickland said, again saying how much he’s looking forward to the next several weeks.

“If it had not been for the billionaires spending massive of amounts of money for him [Portman], I’d be 15 or 20 points ahead of him,” Ted Strickland said, adding, “I’m on the right side of the issues and he isn’t.”